Responding to the kind invitation of the Shortriver Scholar, the XYS Chief Scientist and "Mentor in PhD and Postdoc Programmes", I will write a series on gauge theories, the much-touted and much-lauded physical theories of the 20th century and believed to remain the dominant theme in the physics of the 21st century.

Gauge symmetry is a great discovery that revolutinized our understanding of physics, particularly the fundamental interactions of the fields/particles underlying our nature. With this idea, we have an amazingly straightforward "standard model" that unifies electromagnetic, strong and weak forces and all elementary paricles can be packed into a single box perfectly.Some people even believe that the last interaction, i.e., gravity, can be treated in a similar way and all four fundamental interactions can be unified by superstring theory.

In the next few postings, I'll explain the essence of gauge symmetry and its success in particle physics and string theory so that you'll have a grip of the major ideas and achievements of the gauge theories. It will be utterly different from what you have read about the same topic because gauge symmetry will be scrutinized in a hitherto unapproached perspective. Of course, you know it has to be like that, otherwise, why don't I just give you a Wiki link or the webpage of a some physics professor?

After the introduction, I'll explain the problems in current physics theories of fundamental interactions and in passing, I'll expose to you the misbelieves and blind spots of the major players in the field. The major purpose of this series is to point out that gauge symmetry has come to its end. It belongs to the past. New paradigms are emerging and will bloom. To support such a rebellious and hated argument, you know I'll have to devote much to explaining why it is so.

I'm keenly aware that it is an exceptional honor to receive an assignment from Scholar Shortriver, our Chief Scientist at the XYS Insitute. I'll surely do my best to write it well. However,I am not sure how regular my postings will be, but let me try once a week first.